Trial begins in 2017 double murder in Meridian Township

LANSING - About a month after he was charged with stabbing Jeffrey Ballor and Kristin Pangman to death at Ballor's Meridian Township home in early 2017, Manuel Pena admitted he was responsible.

"I need to speak to a judge because I've decided to cooperate with this process," Pena wrote in a letter given to a deputy at the Ingham County Jail. "I know I committed a serious crime, and I am ready to man up and go to prison for it."

Now, as Pena goes to trial in Ingham County Circuit Court, the biggest question left to answer is whether he committed first-degree murder, second-degree murder or something less.

"My client killed both of them," Pena's attorney, G. Michael Hocking, told a jury during his opening statement on Monday. "You're going to be asked to decide between first- and second-degree murder."

Prosecutors contend Pena committed first-degree premeditated murder or first-degree felony murder when he killed Ballor, 48, and Pangman, 46, in Ballor's home on East Lake Lansing Road on the night of Jan. 20, 2017.

Deputy Chief Assistant Ingham County Prosecutor John Dewane began his opening statement with Pena's jailhouse letter, in which Pena said he's "guilty of murder in the first degree."

Pena possessed Ballor's gun, various identification cards and some of the man's clothes when he was arrested the next evening, Dewane said. The murder weapon was in a backpack Pena had with him, he said.

Besides the two murder charges, Pena, 27, faces charges of armed robbery, larceny of a firearm, possession of a firearm by a felon and possession of a firearm during commission of a felony.

Pena lived with his mother in an apartment near Ballor's home and was acquainted with Ballor, according to testimony.

On the night of the killings, a number of people showed up at Ballor's house for an inauguration party, but couldn't get him to come to the door. They eventually left, but two friends later returned, broke into the house and found the two victims dead in the basement, Dewane said.